The four surviving piano works composed by the parsimoniously self-critical Paul Dukas deserve to be played far more frequently than they are. That is, if you can find a pianist willing to sustain the E-flat minor sonata’s vast time-scale, master its intricate, unrelenting technical hurdles, and communicate its elaborately refined harmonic and contrapuntal detail. The Rameau Variations make similar demands and offer as many rewards.
I’m not certain Chantal Stigliani is the Dukas pianist we’ve been waiting for, at least in comparison to the recorded competition. Like Margaret Fingerhut on Chandos, Stigliani takes the Sonata’s first movement at a slower overall pace than the composer’s “Moderément vite” suggests, yet she imposes small ritards plus dynamic and tempo adjustments that break the line and dissipate the continuity. She manages the third movement’s demanding toccata-like textures well enough, but without John Ogdon’s correct dynamic proportions, clarity of voicing, and supple rhythm.
Similar criticism can be leveled on Stigliani’s Rameau Variations. There’s much to admire in terms of momentary nuances and color dabs. But variations requiring lightness and delicacy, such as Nos. 4 and 9, tend to get heavier and slower as they progress, in contrast to Fingerhut’s nimbler, more rhythmically centered dispatch. The relaxed demeanor of Grant Johannesen’s old recording, along with Anne D’Arco’s lovely reading on Calliope, still linger in this reviewer’s ancient ears.
One performance, though, is possibly worth the price of this disc. The strange, elegiac La plainte, au loin, du faune, composed in 1920 as a tribute to Debussy, consists of murky harmonic clouds suspended over a foreboding pedal tone. Stigliani’s protracted interpretation pushes the music’s surreal aura to Dali-esque limits and generates agonizing harmonic tension absent from Fingerhut’s more chiseled, conventional rendition. Naxos’ sonics are constricted, overly close, and too dry for such wet music, let alone for a pianist like Stigliani who loves to bring out bass lines. Fingerhut remains a solid first choice for Dukas’ complete piano music, with Ogdon’s Sonata still number one.
